Feeling Foggy? Boost Your Brain Power

Whether you are suffering a menopausal muddle or just too much on your mind to always think clearly your progesterone levels may need a boost to make things clearer. There are also some essential nutrients you must not miss out on.

The brain depends upon specific nutrients in order to function with peak capacity. There are certain nutrients that are challenging to get from our diet and lifestyles. These nutrients can be supplemented through whole food based sources. These are some the most specific nutritional supplements for healthy brain function.

Vitamin D3

This is extremely critical for brain development and maturity throughout life. Lowered vitamin D3 levels are associated with autism, dyslexia and ADHD in children and neurodegenerative diseases like dementia, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

The optimal source of vitamin D3 is through the sun. Most of our ancestors were able to derive optimal vitamin D3 levels through regular sun exposure. In the Northern climates, they would get a lot in the summer and then their diet of fatty fish, organ meat and raw milk that naturally contain little bits to keep them going in the winter.

Researchers have found that the optimal vitamin D3 levels are between 70-100ng/ml. Over 95 percent of society is well under these levels. Taking 10,000 IU of vitamin D3 daily is a great way to ensure your levels are optimized and your brain development is at its peak.

Omega-3 fatty acids

Omega-3 fatty acid supplements and astaxanthin reduce inflammation. Omega-3s help provide better cell membrane receptor activity while astaxanthin has the unique ability to cross the blood brain barrier as well as the blood-retinal barrier while most carotenoids do not. This helps protect the brain and eyes from inflammatory damage and reduces the risk for blindness, cataracts, macular degeneration, dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease and other neurological disorders.

Astaxanthin works particularly well against peroxyl radicals that damage cell membranes. This is particularly important because all essential fats, in-particular, long-chain omega-3 fatty acids such as EPA and DHA are very fragile and susceptible to free radical damage. Astaxanthin is the most powerful antioxidant at inhibiting the oxidation of these essential fats. Take one to two grams of EPA/DHA daily with four to eight milligrams of astaxanthin.

Probiotics

Gut health is extremely critical to brain health. Children with neurodevelopmental problems like Autism, dyslexia and ADHD are known to have leaky gut syndromes and often have very profound food allergies. When the gut is damaged, it allows food particles to cross into the blood stream where the immune system creates an inflammatory attack. This inflammation passes into the brain and screws up neurological processing.

Many individuals have dysbiosis or bad bacterial balance in their gut and parasites like Candida. The parasites and opportunistic bacteria release toxins into the blood stream that get into the brain and cause inflammation leading to poor memory, brain fog and advanced states of brain degeneration.

Supplement with a high quality probiotic that has diverse strains (at least 20 different strains) and over 50 billion colony forming units. This is the probiotic that will deliver results and you will feel the difference after a week.

B-complex vitamins

Methylation is a key biochemical process that happens billions of times every second to repair the DNA in the body. B vitamins are the key components to healthy methylation processes. Take a whole food-based multivitamin and/or B complex supplement and improve your gut health to absorb these nutrients more effectively. It is also key to eat lots of dark, green leafy vegetables and organic animal products to get these nutrients.

The key methylators include vitamin B6, folate and B12. Research has shown that lowered levels of these nutrients all result in a significantly increased risk of dementia, mood and anxiety disorders and neurodegenerative processes. Niacin which is B3 also has been shown to be important for cognitive function.

Bioidentical natural progesterone

Once of the major factors in memory can be related to stress and anxiety and the performance of the hormone cortisol that is released by the adrenal glands in response those states. When we are stressed our body responds by redirecting our blood flow away from areas like the stomach and brain and into the muscles and nerves, so less blood flow to the brain means less ability to think clearly.

Prolonged high cortisol levels affects our hormones, in particular blocking progesterone and thyroid, which is one of the reasons you can have symptoms of low thyroid or progesterone and test normal for them.

Thyroid dysfunction can cause foggy brain which makes it challenging to retrieve memories.

Getting your thyroid levels checked and ensuring you do have adequeate progeserone levels to deal with any oestrogen dominance symptoms will go a long way to ensuring you stay alert and clear headed.

Helpful information:

We can all suffer from ‘brain freeze’ when feeling stressed or overwhelmed and at menopause in particular when life is a constant rollercoaster of symptoms it pays to stay calm, and do all you can to make life easier for yourself. Making lists is an old-fashioned and highly effective way to help when feeling it is all too much, and making sure your hormones are in balance will go a long way too in helping you stay sharper and clearer.

To learn more about David Jockers work, please visit his website at www.drjockers.com and these articles may also help:

Unopposed oestrogen is not generally recommended to women with your history Yvonne but women can safely use progesterone as that both opposes excess oestrogen and is protective of the breast.It is safely used by many women with a risk, or history, of breast cancer to help with menopause symptoms such as yours and this article may be helpful:https://www.bio-hormone-health.com/2015/07/15/breast-cancer-and-progesterone/

Yvonne | 1:58 pm, January 4th, 2017

2 years ago had an hysterectomy with removal of both ovaries, experiencing weight gain, foggy brain, joint pain and fatigue have you any advice as GP not very helpful says I need estrogen but there is cancer in my family on my mothers side…

Mara | 7:23 pm, February 27th, 2015

What are some brands of probiotics that have over 20 strains and over 50 billion colonies? I have been searching and have not found any.